Local deputies participate in ‘Tweet-a-thon’

Deputy Josh Dubin Posts a tweet about an incident he worked in the Vons shopping center parking lot in Canyon Country. His tweets for the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff's Station were part of a worldwide "virtual ride-along." Signal photo by Jonathan Pobre

The Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station took to Twitter Friday to provide a virtual walkthrough of an average day on patrol.

From 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., Sgt. Darren Harris and Deputy Josh Dubin went on patrol in Canyon Country as Dubin sent text updates and photographs via Twitter, a social media network that allows users to post messages of less than 140 characters.

The event, called the “Global Police Tweet-a-thon,” allowed members of the public to follow a series of local deputies throughout the course of the day and see what kind of calls the Sheriff’s Station responds to, Dubin said.

“This Tweet-a-thon wasn’t scripted,” Dubin said. “It was just us working patrol and whatever was dispatched to us is what we responded to.”

Some of the calls Dubin and Harris responded to during the eight-hour event included a residential burglary alarm, a reported assault with a deadly weapon and a report of a potential fight.

The pair also issued a citation to a driver who was driving with an expired vehicle registration, no insurance and a suspended driver’s license.

Dubin later posted a picture of the driver’s vehicle being towed.

Dubin said the purpose of the event was both to offer residents a glimpse into the job of sheriff’s deputy and to show that today’s law enforcement agencies are social-media savvy.

The Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station was one of more than 100 law enforcement agencies from the U.S., Australia, Canada, Iceland, the United Kingdom and Sweden to take part in the event.

Dubin said the station plans to take part in next year’s event.

“Based on the amount of positive feedback we received, we’d love to do it again,” Dubin said.